MPA Newsstand Promo Helps Jolt Sales

In-store display, coupon offer gives 25 percent lift to participating mags.

By Bill Mickey
Wednesday, December 2, 2009

A late summer newsstand promotion coordinated by the MPA and Harrisburg News led to a 15 percent lift in category sales for magazines in five supermarkets in four states, the MPA announced yesterday. The nine titles participating in the promotion, which included a nine-pocket display, shelf flags and a $2 discount coupon, saw a 25 percent jump in sales.

Billed as an attention-grabbing scheme, the program—partially funded by Hearst, Conde Nast, Time Inc., Meredith, Reader's Digest, and Rodale—was designed to generate excitement about the magazine category and prove its vitality in the retail environment. "This publisher-funded promotion brought additional attention to the magazine category at retail, and enhanced the revenue and profitability of single copy magazine sales for retailers and all of our channel partners," said Ken Godshall, EVP of consumer marketing at the MPA, in a statement.

According to the MPA, the program generated 70,000 incremental unit sales and $325,000 in extra revenue.

Cosmopolitan, Everyday with Rachael Ray, Glamour, InStyle, Men's Health, More, Oprah, People, and People StylWatch were the nine titles involved in the program, which ran in Giant Carlisle, Weis, Wegmans, Darrenkamps and Bozzuto's in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia—Harrisburg News's primary distribution region.

The promotion is an expansion of a test that launched last year, where the MPA partnered with Midwest retail chain Meijer to offer customers the same discount.

The release.

MPA to Test Discount for Midwest Magazine Buyers